


Never Let Your Guard Down

by randomcheeses



Series: What if? [29]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Canon - Manga, Gen, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-20
Updated: 2011-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-15 19:25:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/164155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomcheeses/pseuds/randomcheeses





	Never Let Your Guard Down

He dives out of the building, the air around him burning hot, thick with smoke and ash. Flames lash out after him, and the boy knows with a horrible certainty that he is the only one who got out of the building alive.

He looks around as the air clears and sees that there is only one person nearby, an Amestrian soldier. A dark-haired young man, with bright red circles emblazoned on pure white gloves. He is kneeling in the dirt and vomiting violently. The boy stares at him, realizing just who the man, not much older than the boy himself, must be.

" _That's_ the Flame Alchemist?" he whispers in denial. But he can't be. There must be some mistake. The Flame Alchemist is some kind of horrible monster. He burns buildings and people to ash without a second thought. He slaughters the people of Ishval in their hundreds. Only the one called Crimson has killed more. This man, this dark-haired soldier now kneeling in his own vomit cannot be the legendary Flame Alchemist. "He can't be," the boy whispers again. "He looks _normal._ "

The soldier looks around at the burnt smouldering corpses who had been living breathing people only moments before, and promptly sicks up again. The smell of regurgitated army rations wafts in the breeze. The alchemist chokes and coughs again, doubling over in pain.

 

Rage rises in the boy's gullet and he pulls a knife from his pocket. He has always had a good aim, and this time, _this time,_ he will _not_ miss. The Flame Alchemist dies here. No more of the children of Ishvalla will suffer his fires.

Someone catches his hand just as he goes to throw the knife. The boy turns in dawning horror. A wide, delighted smile greets him. "Ah-ah," the soldier with long, black hair sing-songs. The palm of the soldier's other hand sparks with the tell-tale blue light of alchemy and the insane smile grows wider.

 

He doesn't have time to scream.

####

Roy watched as Kimbley stepped over the remains of the boy, wiping his blood-stained palms on his trousers. "Should be more careful next time, Mustang," the Crimson Alchemist advised cheerfully. "I might not be around to clean up the ones you miss." He grinned, and Roy's stomach lurched unpleasantly.

Roy tried in vain not to look at the pasty mass of meat that had been a teenage boy less than a minute ago. As Kimbley walked towards him, still grinning happily, he finally lost control of his rebelling stomach and emptied it all over the ground in front of him again.

"Hey, what's the matter, Flame?" he heard Kimbley ask, the man somehow managing to sound genuinely worried. "You eat something that disagreed with you?"


End file.
